Robert F. Smith

Robert Frederick Smith was born on December 1, 1962, in Denver, Colorado. He is the fourth generation in his family to be born in Colorado. His parents, Dr. William Robert Smith and Dr. Sylvia Myrna Smith, were both educators with PhDs in education. Robert attended Carson Elementary School and Gove Junior High School in Denver before graduating from East High School in 1981.

Robert Smith earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1985, where he won the Procter and Gamble Technical Excellence Award. He was also initiated as a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha (APA) fraternity in 1982. After graduating, he worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Air Products & Chemicals. As the principal investor at Kraft General Foods, he registered two United States and two European patents. In 1994, he received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, with concentrations in finance and marketing. He then worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs in technology investment banking from 1994 to 2000.

In 2000, Robert Smith founded Vista Equity Partners, an Austin, Texas-based private equity and venture capital firm. As the principal founder, chairman, and chief executive of Vista, he led the company's acquisition of enterprise software businesses and implementation of performance improvements. Vista consistently generated a 30% rate of return for investors from its inception through 2020. By 2019, Vista Equity Partners had become the fourth-largest enterprise software company, after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. Some of the companies Vista has invested in include STATS, Ping Identity, and Jio. As of 2019, Vista had closed more than $46 billion in funding.

Robert Smith is known for his extensive philanthropic efforts. He is the founding director and president of the Fund II Foundation, which has invested in organizations such as Cornell, the National Park Foundation, and Susan G.

Komen. In 2015, he sponsored the college education of all returned Boko Haram girls. He has made significant donations to Cornell University, Carnegie Hall, Columbia Business School, the City of Hope Gala, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Cultural Performance Center at the Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park, the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and Morehouse College. In 2019, he announced that he would pay off the entire student loan debt of the 2019 Morehouse College graduating class, a reported $34 million in student loan debt. He has also launched The Student Freedom Initiative, a nonprofit organization to benefit HBCU students, and partnered with Prudential Financial to provide microgrants to HBCU students. Additionally, he has supported diversity in the arts through donations to the Sphinx Organization.

Robert Smith has been involved in political activities. In December 2022, he joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other notable figures to host 15 Days of Light, a unifying holiday ceremony celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa at Carnegie Hall.

In October 2020, Robert Smith entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), agreeing to assist the DOJ in a separate case against businessman Robert T. Brockman and pay a fine of $139 million. According to the DOJ, Brockman led Smith to use an offshore trust that concealed income.

Robert Smith has held various leadership positions and achieved recognition in different areas. He has served as the chairman of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, on the board of overseers of Columbia Business School, as a member of the Cornell Engineering College Council, on the Cornell University Tech Board, and as a Trustee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco. He became the board chairman of Carnegie Hall in 2016, the first African-American to hold that position.

He also serves as a board member of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. In 2020, he was named to the Strike Force to Open Texas by Governor Greg Abbott. Additionally, he was nominated by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. to serve as executive producer of a series of film and television projects titled "The GOAT" aimed to tell Mayweather's life story.

Robert Smith has received numerous honors and awards for his achievements. These include the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, honorary doctorates from Huston-Tillotson University, the University of Denver, and Morehouse College, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Chairman's Award, Ebony’s John H. Johnson Award, the International Medical Corps Humanitarian of the Year Award, the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, the United Negro College Fund President’s Award, inclusion in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, the National Association of Investment Companies Award of Excellence, and an honorary doctorate of International Affairs from American University's School of International Service.

Robert Smith married his first wife, Suzanne McFayden, in 1988, but they divorced in 2014. In 2015, he married Hope Dworaczyk, the founder and CEO of skincare company MUTHA. He has eight children, three from his first marriage and five with his current wife. Smith owns homes in Austin, Texas, Malibu, California, New York City, Denver, and Florida. In 2007, he partnered with Matthew Burkett to purchase the historic Lincoln Hills, Colorado property in Gilpin County and convert it into an exclusive invitation-only fly fishing club. In 2018, Forbes named him the wealthiest African-American, surpassing Oprah Winfrey. As of November 2023, Forbes estimated his net worth at $9.2 billion, making him the 78th-richest person in the United States and the 235th-richest person in the world.

Robert Smith is known for his love of music and has performed with various artists, including Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, and John Legend.

He is also an avid art collector and has a significant collection of African-American art.